SAGINAW, MI — Work is under way to construct one of two Central Michigan University College of Medicine Saginaw campuses.Stephen Lawrence, CMU's associate vice president of facilities management, said steel work began Monday, March 24, at 1632 Stone outside Covenant Healthcare.

The university is building two facilities in Saginaw for its newly-opened College of Medicine, one at Covenant and the other attached to St. Mary's of Michigan's Health Education Center, 800 S. Washington.

Jim Knight, CMU College of Medicine marketing director, said the building at St. Mary's hospital is in planning stages, and there is no date set for construction.

The $25 million, 46,000-square-foot facility near Covenant hospital will house a simulation center and four advanced-technology classrooms, along with labs, classrooms and a library. Third- and fourth-year medical students and residents will use the building.

"After all the hard work and planning, it's great to see the project finally come to fruition," said Spence Maidlow, Covenant chief executive officer.

Prior to starting construction, crews identified and protected foundation areas from frost with boiler equipment, blankets and unfrozen fill sand. Crews moved heavy equipment and materials early and completed the foundations March 14, Lawrence said.

“This is a local project, putting Saginaw and mid-Michigan residents to work building an educational facility for the only medical school that exists specifically to serve the central and northern regions of the state,” he said.

A rendering of the future Central Michigan University College of Medicine near Covenant HealthCare hospital.Courtesy | CMU

Eight of 15 project subcontractors are from Saginaw and all are from within a 75-mile radius of the city. Union contractors will construct two-thirds of the facility.

The Covenant campus on Saginaw's West Side should be complete by May 2015.

“It creates a new vibrancy for the whole center city area,” said JoAnn Crary, Saginaw Future president. "It’s great to see the building taking shape."

The CMU College of Medicine opened in August with its first class of 64 students, 17 of whom come from the Great Lakes Bay Region. The second and subsequent classes will have 104 students.

More than 3,000 students applied for the second class.

Students will spend two years in Mount Pleasant and two years doing clinical work in hospitals in Saginaw and throughout northern and mid-Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.

The college is designed to train doctors to work in Michigan’s under-served rural and urban communities in emergency medicine, family practice, pediatrics, internal medicine, general surgery and obstetrics and gynecology.

The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortage of 6,000 physicians in Michigan by 2020 and recommends a 30 percent increase in medical school enrollment by 2015. About 25 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, with 10 percent of physicians practicing in those areas.

The CMU College of Medicine has established locations in Saginaw, including the CMU Medical Education Partners formed with the former Synergy Medical Education Alliance and Department of Surgery formed with Midwestern Surgical Associates.

Maidlow said the CMU College of Medicine will bring an assurance of quality to patient care in Saginaw.

The doctors patients see are the same ones who will teach students and residents, he said, and they must have special confidence to teach fellow medical professionals.

"The increased number of students and activity on the campus will have economic, social, and academic benefits to Saginaw," he said. "Working with CMU College of Medicine will solidify Saginaw's reputation as a medical referral center."

— Lindsay Knake covers education for MLive/The Saginaw News. Follow her on twitter or contact her at 989-372-2498 or lknake@mlive.com.